Events 2008

Mart’nália is from Rio de Janeiro and was raised inside the samba scene, being the daughter of Martinho da Vila, a major composer and performer. Samba is Mart’nália’s natural element.
Next to her smoky voice and her sensual samba vein, she is a percussionist of first rank. In her airy, effortless and far-reaching performances, she gives us a mix of nonchalance and longing. Magnetic and daring, Mart’nália takes us through the full spectrum of samba, transiting across other styles with an amazing naturalness. Mart’nália is one of the best and freshest singers of Brazilian modern samba today.

Mart'nália voice, Thiago Brito mandolin, Luiz Brito percussion, Anderson Nascimento percussion, Adelson Oliveira Jr percussion, Alfredo Machado guitar, Frederico José Maria bass and Analimar Ventapane backing vocal

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Proost Mart'nália!!!
by Margô Dalla

Mart’nália owns a wonderful soft velvet voice and on the top of that, she is extremely sweet!

She has departure from Vila Isabel - a popular neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro - straight to the world: the world of the Bimhuis, one of the most special music houses in Europe. There, Mart’nália performed an enchanting and impeccable concert, making the public stand up and dance all time long, with her beats and songs.

Definitely, the Summer of Amsterdam became more swinging and delightful after Mart’nália’s presentation in the Bimhuis. The singer and composer who plays guitar and percussions has also a deliciously cool dancing style, possibly adopted under the influence of samba-de-roda and capoeira.

Dressing a t-shirt, shorts and flat leather sandals, while wearing necklaces around her neck (one with the medal of Saint George, her saint of devotion), Mart’nália made her entrance with a classical samba from Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho: “Sei lá, a vida tem sempre razão” , freely translated as “I am not sure but it seems life is always right”. On the stage, an intriguing installation mixing several percussion instruments that Mart’nália used to make the rhythm and lead the whole concert.

With a constant smile in her face, she introduced her musicians: percussionists Menino Brito, Macaco Branco, Thiago Mosquito e Junior Crispim - who turn her songs in cadent samba beats as the best battery of the Escolas de Samba of Rio de Janeiro - and Pedro Moraes, bass, Doca Machado, guitar, plus the charming backing vocal with the tambourine, her sister Analimar Ventapane Ferreira.

While singing Cabide, a fresh sexy song composed by another Brazilian new star, Ana Carolina, she was followed by an orchestra of tambourines as herself performed a special choreography specially meant to the flirting provoking lyrics of the song. At the end, an impressive apotheosis of the tambourines. Absolutely spectacular!

“Now, I’ll introduce you to Mart’nália”. After saying that, she sang “Para Mart’nália”, a beautiful song made specially for her by composers Jorge Agrião e Fred Camacho which translates what Martinho da Vila’s daughter essentially is: an extraordinary sambist.

Raised inside the music scene, as kids Mart’nália and her sister Analimar, used to join the rodas de samba hosted by her parents in Vila Isabel. One of the most musical spots in Rio de Janeiro, the area where her father - the great Martinho da Vila - has chose to live together with his family, is the place of birth of Noel Rosa and a meeting point of several genuine samba performers as Paulinho da Viola e Dona Ivone Lara, among others.

Martinho da Vila, with his sensual compassed singing influenced by the tradition of folia de reis, sambas de terreiros and partido alto, is one of her strongest influences. “I was a kid when my father once said that I should live in Amsterdam; I have no idea why, but he said that. I want to make a homage to my father who is becoming 70”, said Martnália to sing a few songs of her father with which she closed the first part of the show.

Following, words of Martinho da Vila about Mart’nália, transcribed from her website:
Mart’nália is my creation. She is a mixture of me, Martinho, with Anália, her mother, who has already passed away, to a better place, I believe.
Tinália, Tina, Martina, Carvu, she seems to be detached, but she is precious; she gives the impression to be disconnected but she is actually very much synchronized with everything, specially in which concerns to music and the greatest artists; she is a dreamer. The 'dreamer Mart’nália, as some people refers to her.
She is a musician, a singer and a composer amongst the finest that I have ever met. What a singer!... Her singing is sweet, black, swinging and her intonation is unique.
She has a body for any kind of rhythm and she likes to dance, she plays guitar and is a percussionist of almost all instruments of rhythm.
Popular composer, she is my partner and a member of the Department of Composers of the Escola de Samba of Vila Isabel.
God bless you, Mart’nália!
Martinho da Vila, the proud father. January, 2005

....After the pause, she kept the strong vibe going: as for the Dutch audience or for Brazilians, the music is universal and it doesn’t matter if one understands the lyrics or not: the feeling of elevation is the same.

From one song to the other and from one bier to another, Mart’nália said “Proost!” to the public and, together with them, she almost stopped breathing when the curtain of the stage was open to the Amsterdam’s landscape and everybody applauded in ecstasy, the beautiful panoramic view.

The repertoire was an assemblage of her work with several known songs of the greatest samba composers and ended with the public wanting more. It was a production of A Hora do Brasil Foundation that has already brought to Amsterdam other important names into their project The Brazilian Summer Sessions and in 13 September will bring Lazzo Matumbi, from Bahia. ...

In the camarin, Martnália spoke with this journalist:
“Even far from home, in a different stage, a jazz house as this, it feels like doing the right thing: the samba.. And there is this unexpected Summer Festival by A Hora do Brasil... I did not know that it would be so delicious. I loved singing and playing for the audience of the Bimhuis.”
I asked about the essence of samba:
“The essence of samba is the rhytm, actually is the cadency, and the same is also true to the Bossa Nova. Bossa Nova is more soft and intimist but, for me, it is samba too. The essence is what you make with the melody. What catches is the melody and the cadency.

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Cheers!
by Annemieke Claassens

How modest the samba sounded by Teresa Cristina, how exuberant and lively here with Mart'nalia and her group, mainly consisting of young percussionists (among them an impressive lady on the tambourim, who appeared to be her sister Analimar) bass and guitar in an attending role and a master on cavaquinho (what a sound for such a small instrument!) From the moment that the singer, who must be known also for her great smile, came on to the stage until the encore, it appeared that she was in total control of the whole thing, in spite of the little can of real Dutch bear (I can't make any publicity, of course) that she was carrying and with what she toasted in several languages ("Proost!"), she maintained control over the ongoing train that produced a tight and solid as a rock samba-repertoire, word by word sung by almost the whole audience, at least that part of the audience that was familiar with the always beautiful Brazilian language, and that was almost everybody. All breaks were tight as hell and when Mart'nalia in a probably really spontaneous action gave the opportunity to one of the percussionists to fill in one of this breaks, the poor guy was so surprised that there was a little moment of total silence (the only moment of the whole concert), but we can't exclude that also this moment was staged before. No "would be" modernity, but pure samba, which she already much have heard in her cradle, being the daughter of famous samba-king Martinho da Vila and   which she served with a fresh sauce. You really felt if you were actually there, on the carnival in Rio, where you would hear all the well-known samba's from for example Vinicius de Moraes (Formosa!).

In short, party-time!

I (because I used to be one myself, way back when a DJ was still an ordinary disc-jockey) felt almost sorry for the DJ, who had to play after this concert; 'cause what can you play after a concert like this? But one of my favourite samba's Vai Passar from the one and only Chico Buarque (could you bring him to Holland once, ladies of A Hora do Brasil, cause you can fix everything now, so it seems!) came immediately after the concert out of the speakers in the smoke-free Bimhuis and the party started all over again. You even didn't feel the urge to go outside for "smirting" *
No, the hotspot was inside the Bimhuis-café at that moment, but fortunately there was free water everywhere, you can leave that to the queens of the A Hora do Brasil Foundation (or the Bimhuis must be a fast student in Brasiology!)

Heard: 16-7-08 Mart'nalia & group, Bimhuis

* (smoking and flirting together outside where you can't smoke inside)

Concept Neyde Lantyer
Project Coordinator Claudia Trajano
Executive Production Claudia Trajano, Neyde Lantyer and Bimhuis
Support Julia Abreu de Souza, Luana Ferreira and Arlete Velu
Photos Georg Grosman
Video Shooting Harry Mertens
Flyer design Martin Lapenna
Sponsors Amsterdam Fonds Voor de Kunst and The Brazilian Embassy in The Hague